This round paired up two of the most frequently abused players (by their teammates) in Vs. System. TAWC’s compact but indisputably excellent Tim Batow ($10K Las Vegas champion, Pro Circuit San Francisco Top 8 finisher, and twice-weekly target of the verbal barbs of Barnes and Wiggans on Metagame.com) faced off against Team FTN’s Milton Figueroa (the only member of his team with no trophy at all—as your feature match reporter likes to frequently remind him—but still the occasional savior of his teammates when they still have no deck the night before a Pro Circuit).
Eager to quiet their mocking teammates by outshining them on the Pro Circuit stage, both players sat on impressive 4-0 records entering round 5. Sadly, the streak was about to end for one of them. Batow seized the early advantage by winning the die roll and choosing the even initiatives, and the match kicked off at a brisk pace—a sensation familiar to the athletic Oklahoman Batow, but perhaps less so for the Miami-based professional sleeper Figueroa.
Batow peeled a hand featuring no characters but two copies of Hero’s Welcome from the top of his deck and shuffled his cards before reluctantly choosing to mulligan for the low drops he needed. This paid off for him in spades, as he drew Ted Kord ◊ Blue Beetle and Mr. Mxyzptlk, Troublesome Trickster in his new hand. Figueroa seemed mostly content with his opening four, and the players moved to turn 1.
Milton’s Sue Dibny was matched by Tim’s freshly ripped Blue Beetle, and the 1-drops fetched their owners a Maxwell Lord, Financier and an Nth Metal respectively. Sue Dibny attacked Blue Beetle, and there was a mutual stun.
End of turn 1: Tim Batow 49, Milton Figueroa 49
Tim brought Ted Kord’s partner Booster Gold into play on turn 2 and equipped him with an Nth Metal. Milton played his searched-out Maxwell Lord and discarded a Trial by Fire to find his Team-Up. Tim habitually scribbled a note on his scorepad to remind himself to be wary of seeing more of the dangerous plot twist.
Combat began with Batow sending his Booster Gold into Sue Dibny. His Nth Metal triggered, and Batow chained Magnificent Seven. Observing a hole to exploit, Figueroa chained two copies of Magical Lobotomy to ensure Sue Dibny would achieve stunback. Batow exhausted his Blue Beetle to fetch another Nth Metal, Booster Gold and Sue Dibny stunned, and Figueroa hit back with Maxwell Lord to gain board advantage by stunning Beetle and forcing his KO.
End of turn 2: Tim Batow 43, Milton Figueroa 45
Milton began turn 3 by underdropping Connor Hawke ◊ Green Arrow and then flipping his World’s Greatest Heroes to draw a card. Tim had an even less impressive drop, using his returned-from-the-grave Mr. Mxyzptlk to form a rather sorry barrier in front of Booster Gold. Both players had now missed their optimal turn 3 plays, which left the game wide open, rather than causing it to degenerate into the one-sided affair it may have become had one hit Shayera Thal ◊ Hawkwoman while the other had not.
Before the combat phase, Batow flipped and used Magical Lobotomy on Connor Hawke and paid 4 endurance to turn it face down again. Figueroa sent Maxwell Lord into Mr. Mxyzptlk, and Batow—almost in a display of farce—powered-up the 1-drop that was never meant to see play (which gained an additional +1 DEF from Booster Gold as a result). Faced with the shameful possibility of having an attack on Mr. Mxyzptlk bounced, Figueroa threw a second Trial by Fire into his KO’d pile to take Maxwell Lord above the defenses of the Fifth-Dimension Imp.
Having achieved the stun, he then sent Connor Hawke and Sue Dibny into Booster Gold. The Nth Metal triggered and then Batow powered-up from hand, forcing the Magical Lobotomy from Figueroa to insure a stun.
End of turn 3: Tim Batow 35, Milton Figueroa 37
Having had their decks both stall on them the previous turn, the players were grateful to see their optimal turn 4 plays. Batow played Katar Hol ◊ Hawkman, Thanagarian Enforcer with Nth Metal, and Figueroa quickly matched with his own symmetrically equipped Hawkman. He formed up with Connor Hawke in front of Maxwell Lord and Hawkman in front of Sue Dibny. Pre-combat, Batow flipped Magical Lobotomy—the game-breaking mirror card—and targeted his opponent’s Hawkman. Both players flipped their face-up Magical Lobotomy cards face down at the start of the combat phase.
Batow began by sending his battle-weary Booster Gold into Figueroa’s Katar Hol. He powered-up from hand, which after the triggering of the Nth Metal and his own Katar Hol’s ally effect, left him at a 9 ATK, resulting in a mutual stun. He then plowed his own Hawkman into Figueroa’s Connor Hawke, who was reinforced by Maxwell Lord.
End of turn 4: Tim Batow 29, Milton Figueroa 25
A swift play of Hero’s Welcome and the discard of two cards gained Milton two copies of Fire. He recruited her and then burned a copy of Kooey Kooey Kooey to find an Nth Metal from his deck, which was duly equipped to his new drop. Tim dropped a Fire of his own but had no equipment for her. He formed up with Katar Hol in front of Booster Gold and Fire in the support row.
Both players once again went through the pre-combat ritual of Lobotomizing their opponent’s characters. Batow showed Figueroa a copy for his Fire. Milton then thought long and hard before using his own Lobotomy on Tim’s Katar Hol. Both players paid the 4 endurance to flip their cards back down.
Milton began his assault with an attack of Katar Hol into Fire. Tim flipped his still-warm Magical Lobotomy and targeted Katar Hol in response. Both characters stunned. Milton then sent his own Fire into his opponent’s Katar Hol. The players thought for some time about their plays, with Tim eventually deciding to power-up and Milton responding with a Magical Lobotomy. As with the previous exchange between these characters, there was a mutual stun. At this point, time was called, and the players would have one more turn to decide the game.
With only low drops left unstunned on the board, Milton opted to send his Maxwell Lord into Booster Gold, augmented by his third showing of Trial by Fire. Batow replied by burning a Kooey Kooey Kooey and negating Trial by Fire with BWA HA HA HA HA!. Figueroa’s Maxwell Lord stunned, and Booster Gold attacked back into Sue Dibny to complete the stun of the Puerto Rican’s board.
At the turn’s conclusion, Milton was left with an Nth-Metal-equipped Fire, while Tim had Katar Hol and Booster Gold, both also with Nth Metal.
End of turn 5: Tim Batow 9, Milton Figueroa 6
Batow opened the final turn of the game with John Henry Irons ◊ Steel, Steel-Drivin’ Man. Milton contemplated his options, then decided to burn a Kooey Kooey Kooey and fetch himself Oliver Queen ◊ Green Arrow, Hard-Traveling Hero, who was given a Cloak of Nabu. He joined Fire in the support row. Tim responded to the Cloak with two copies of Magical Lobotomy from his resource row, ensuring he would get the key plot twist to stick to Queen before the Cloak of Nabu rendered him immune.
At the start of the combat phase, both players had Magical Lobotomy triggers and both did the math carefully to try to insure they’d win that turn. Batow opted to flip one of his face down; Figueroa matched him. The Oklahoman then immediately flipped it back up to target Fire before sending Steel into an attack on her. Upon her Nth Metal trigger, Figueroa exhausted Oliver Queen to shoot Booster Gold—the thorn in his side all game. He then discarded a copy of Fire to burn Batow with Fire’s ally ability, played Magnificent Seven to do the same thing again, and KO’d a Kooey Kooey Kooey to fetch a Magical Lobotomy. Batow’s Lobotomy had, however, insured that Fire’s power-ups had no overall effect on her ATK or DEF, and she stunned.
For the final attack of the game, Batow sent his Katar Hol into Oliver Queen. Figueroa played the Magical Lobotomy he had just found, but Batow was able to use Steel to blow the Nth metal from his stunned Booster Gold and trigger Katar Hol’s ally text a second time. This resulted in a mutual stun with enough breakthrough to seal a tiny—but significant—win for TAWC over FTN.
Final score: Tim Batow -9, Milton Figueroa -10.
Tim Batow wins!